Okay, I have rough handle on several high end speakers and can almost understand all the hype...they make better seven or eight times out of ten, regardless of how good you think you are, (unless you are super good) us home grown folks just do not have the CNC cutting tachniques...however...what about stands???

Forget the technicalities for the meantime and just concentrate on the top five materials please. I am off and running with dozens because I grudge the big bucks for basic welded frames and brand name metal tubes...any inputs folks:

STONE Preferably marble or granite on the top and / or base

PLASTIC Tubes which can be cut to length - thicker wall size the better

WOOD Oak because it sounds expensive and is very predictable when it comes to sanding, varnish and long term warping issues

LEAD For filling tubes or duplex bases / tops

NON METALLIC PAINT Probably silly to include this in any top five, but a basic need to have the whole thing looking good...

There you go, have fun...is Kustone or any of the other compounds really any better than basic stone...is metal better than plastic...is sound treated MDF better than real wood...is sand better than lead...does anybrand paint do the job...do I really need to have super neoprene type gasket in all the joints, or will any silicone suffice...do I need to gasket the joints in the first place anyway...we are taking about a thing to raise a speaker here...it could probably sit on any old piece of junk and still sound okay...

Have fun if you respond to this one, because I surely am having FUN!!!

PS Home made stands look easy on 100's of websites...until you actually try it...tee hee...

Alphason, Atacama, Target, Apollo, Soundstyle and probably more that I have forgotten over the years. I want black, they do white, I want round, they do square, I want square, they do oval, I want oval, they do hex, I want two feet five inches high, they do two feet six inches, I want a base seven inches by nine, they do them eight by ten...and on ...and on...

I have almost reached hifi nirvana with an exclusive custom built listening room (totally detached from main house) and have a choice of literally dozens of both old and new speakers and inputs. I have tried so many permutations during many years that I am now starting from the basic assumption which states that solid concrete pillars are the tops and anything else has to be seriously well researched to be any better. I am also looking at isolation platforms in detail and hope to have many read across material ideas to play around with...

Most of the higher end manufacturers of this type of product have budget ranges which are perfectly fine, and I do use store bought with no worries much of the time. This question is just that little bit in search of something else...or maybe not...maybe the answer is exactly as you suggest...why mess around with anything if you can buy the same for less than a decent piece of vinyl these days...and at the end of all that...your suggestion is just so simple...sand AND lead...goodness...never even considered that one so far...BRILLIANT...that should kill a few 'better than' debates...I must go find out how this star rating thing works and see if I can boost yours a bit. Many thanks.